Ross Reynolds

Executive Producer of Community Engagement

Year started with KUOW: 1987

Ross is responsible connecting with the community to find out ways that KUOW can help, beyond our on air and online services. He was co-host of KUOW’s daily news magazine The Record September 2013 to November 2015. Before that he hosted The Conversation, KUOW's award–winning daily news–talk program from 2000 to 2013. Ross came to KUOW in 1987 as news director and in 1992 became program director. As program director, he changed the station's format from classical/news to news and yet more news. In 1998, Ross became program director and news director. KUOW's coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in 1999 won a National Headliner First Place Award for Coverage of a Live Event.

Along the way, Ross hosted the daily magazine program Seattle Afternoon; the award–winning regional newsmagazine Northwest Journal that aired in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska; and a weekly public television interview program on KCTS Seattle called Upon Reflection. He is a frequent moderator for political debates and discussions in the Seattle community.

Ross has participated in journalism fellowships which have taken him to Germany, the Kingdom of Tonga, Tokyo, South Korea and Malaysia. In 2011, Ross graduated from the University of Washington with a master's degree in digital media from the School of Communication.

His pre-KUOW career included seven years as news director at community radio station KBOO in Portland, five years as news and public affairs director at WCUW in Worcester, Massachusetts, two years as music editor of Worcester Magazine, and short stints as fill-in news director at KMXT Kodiak, Alaska, and the Pacifica National News Service, Washington, DC, bureau. Ross has a cameo role in the documentary film "Manufacturing Consent," an intellectual biography of Noam Chomsky.

Ways to Connect

It’s being called the most stunning victory in modern American history. In January Donald J. Trump will take office as president of the United States. We’ve heard plenty from the politicians and the pundits. Now what do you have to say?

Sherry Turkle writes “face to face conversation is the most human – and humanizing – thing we do.” Yet, Turkle says in contemporary society we’re seeing a flight from conversation to our phones where we get a constant feed of connection, information and entertainment.

While Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were duking it out on Sunday night, you were watching. Some of you were at a presidential debate-viewing party sponsored by KUOW and Humanities Washington at Naked City Brewery in Seattle's Greenwood neighborhood. (And if you weren't, you can always come to our last viewing party on October 19. ) Afterward, KUOW's Ross Reynolds gathered reactions from some of the people there, including Ryan Weber, Kate Zodrow and Satya (last name not given).

Ross Reynolds interviews Arlie Hochschild, professor of sociology at the University of California Berkeley, about her new book, “Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right", which has just been listed as a finalist for a 2016 National Book Award in Non-Fiction. Hochschild spent five years among low income people in rural Louisiana in order to understand the conservative movement.

Donald Trump officially became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee this week. We’ll recap the Republican National Convention and discuss comments made by Republican state party chair Susan Hutchison.

Ross Reynolds interviews Susan Conrad about her 1,200 mile solo kayak trip from Washington to Alaska. She recounts the 2010 trip in her new memoir, "Inside: One Woman’s Journey Through the Inside Passage."

Ross Reynolds talks with Rev. Carey Anderson about the one year anniversary of the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. Anderson is senior minister at Seattle's First African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Our machines are getting smarter at a mind-bending pace. Tech writer Kevin Kelly, founder and former executive editor at Wired Magazine (his job title now is Senior Maverick), attempts to chart the future in his new book "The Inevitable: Understanding The 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future."

Ross Reynolds interviews Sandy Cioffi, curator of the virtual reality festival SIFFX, within the Seattle International Film Festival. Cioffi describes the unique ability of VR productions to evoke empathy and emotion and explains how people who don't attend the festival can experience VR for themselves.

It's the beginning of the end for the sprawling homeless camp under Interstate 5 known as the Jungle. This week, officials from the city of Seattle and Washington state unveiled a plan to clear out and clean up the Jungle.

Ever heard of Seattle's 20-year plan? We discuss why you should care about it. And what kind of hope should we have for the new approach to the homeless encampment known as the Jungle? Also, as Sound Transit move towards a light-rail future, are they spending too much on the opening day festivities? What does it mean for Washington state now that the Army Corps of Engineers has put a stop to a new deep water terminal in Cherry Point? Ross Reynolds talks over the week's news with writer Erica C. Barnett, columnist Jonathan Martin and lawyer and activist Gyasi Ross.

Digital media and the World Wide Web have disrupted media, decimating the newspaper business and upending other legacy media outlets. After years of strong growth is digital disruption finally reaching public radio? Some question whether NPR can survive . Others feel the public radio collaboration between radio stations and the network is fraying. In this interview recorded at Town Hall in Seattle, May 3, Ross Reynolds speaks with the former head of NPR news, Bill Buzenberg.

Olympia novelist Jim Lynch’s new book “Before the Wind” is about a Seattle family that builds, repairs and races a sail boat. They’re not blue-blazer yachtsmen; they’re the working class people who make and maintain the boats for the yachtsmen.

Will the city come to a standstill with the viaduct closed? That isn't the only transportation story this week, we're also talking about Sound Transit 3. And can you win an election without big donations? Why aren't more people furious about Troy Kelley? Plus, a round up of this week in pot. Ross Reynolds talks the week's news with former Attorney General Rob McKenna, Seattle Channel's Joni Balter and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci.

Washington state and Seattle have a reputation as left-leaning – most recently because of the election of Socialist city council member Kshama Sawant and our adoption of the $15 an hour minimum wage. But our lefty reputation is older than that. (Exhibit A: statue of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin in Fremont.)